Rules for Hero CreationThe rules of how to create a hero are contained in the Hero Creation Packet contained on the Hilara Google Drive. They are pretty clear - my students have always been able to create heroes following these rules.

Rules for the RPG:First of all, these are more like guidelines rather than rules. This is not chess. It is a dynamic story that is constantly changing and the rules change with them. The modus operandi is for the Muse to read the RPG adventure ahead of time. When playing the game, he or she reads aloud the text in bold to the group and asks them what they decide to do. This is pretty fluid and the muse often acts as a referee discarding terrible ideas - "We build an airplane and fly out of the window!" and encouraging good ideas. "We get our weapons and creep down the stairs."

The basis of the gaming system is a 20 sided die. This is one of 5 dice that you will need but it is the one you will use the most. Students create heroes that have characteristics. These are: strength, intelligence, dexterity, charisma, courage, endurance and comeliness. These are all clearly detailed in the Hero Creation packet. Many times, to determine whether or not a hero can accomplish a task, the player will roll a 20 sided die and hope to roll under the points they point in that characteristic.

WHAT?Let me give you an example: Your hero has 12 points of dexterity. He sees an enemy and attempts to attack the enemy with his sword. To determine whether or not he hits the enemy, the player rolls a 20 sided die and if he rolls a 12 or UNDER his dexterity score, then he makes contact. If he rolls over, he misses. Here's another:Your hero has a courage score of 5. Your group sees a ghost in a dark forest. To determine whether or not the hero is able to stand his ground, he rolls the 20 sided die. If he rolls under his courage, he faces the ghost. If he rolls the same number or over, he runs away in fear.

Not all the characteristics translate to this kind of roll. If a character has a high intelligence, he or she will have more skill points than one with a lower intelligence. How many extra skill points is described in the character creation packet. Students can choose skills that their characters have from a list of skills in the Hero Creation Packet. On the Hero Sheet, players list their skills as the number of points that they put into that skill. Like characteristics, the maximum points they can put into a skill is 20. Unlike characteristics, they don't have to put points in all skills. Sometimes a character will need to accomplish a task that requires a certain skill. Let's say, the groups sees a frightened horse wandering in the burning city. Can they capture it? Does anyone in the group have Equestrian skills?If so, they should make a roll on a 20 sided die. If they roll under the the number of points they put in that skill, then they successfully capture the horse. If not, then the horse runs away.

When do I make these rolls?The RPG adventures explains when to make all these rolls. That doesn't mean that the muse can't add other rolls into the game when the characters go off script, as they will do frequently.

How do you do play out combat in the game?The combat sequence is explained in the drive on the sheet: Combat Sequence. you should photocopy that and hand it out to your muses to follow. Basically, this is how it works:

Characters wishing to attack an enemy must make a successful dexterity roll (Use a 20 sided die and roll) . Then, if the character makes a successful attack (by rolling under their dexterity score) , damage is determined. Damage is determined by rolling one of the other 4 die. The greater the strength of the character, the more damage they can do. All of this is explained in the Hero Creation Kit. But let's say, the character has a strength of 16. In that case they roll an 8 sided die. Let's say, the character rolls a "6." In that case, he does 6 points of damage. These 6 points are subtracted from the enemy's life points. Players can lose life points too when enemies make a successful attack against them. All the statistics for the various enemies attacking are given in the various adventures. Players roll for themselves and the muse rolls for the enemies.

Suppose a character loses all his or her life points?Then they are dead. There is no cure for dead. That character is retired and the player must make a new character. The player is out of the current adventure but the player's new character will be brought in on the next RPG. In general, most players can avoid having their characters killed by working cooperatively with the group. Characters most often die when they go off on their own and do something stupid - like attack a Cyclops. I find in general that if a character dies, the other members of the group are glad to be temporarily rid of that player. The player then tends to reflect on his or her behavior and is usually more cooperative once they are brought back into the game during the next adventure. It's boring to be dead. Players with dead characters usually try to avoid that happening a second time.

Can characters get back life points that they have lost through combat?Yes - the most intelligent character of the group should take on a number of healing skills. Once there is a break in the action - after a battle for example, the character can employ his healing skills to give back character's life points. Characters may not take back more life points than they originally started with.

Also, all characters "heal" in between RPG adventures. So characters that had lost life points during the second RPG are healed back to full strength at the beginning of the third.